Inspired by other French winemakers who had already come to California, a young Frenchman named George Le Mesnager arrived here in 1866. He set about acquiring several plots of land, including the large property in the northern reaches of our city which now forms Deukmejian Wilderness Park.
As a new arrival, Le Mesnager, like other immigrants, worked at whatever came his way, from tending sheep to working as a county court translator. At one point he edited a French newspaper.
In the midst of his energetic quest to make his fortune, he felt compelled to return to France to help defend his country in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. When he returned, he again took up the duties of his notary’s office, according to the Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1916.
He married a woman named Conception, a native of Spain, and they had a son Louis, born in 1878. When his wife died in 1892, her funeral was held in the family residence on Mesnager Street, opposite the Southern Pacific railway depot on San Fernando Street, according to the June 12, 1892 Times. Later, he married Marie de Grey, a native of France.
